''Sydsvenska Dagbladet Snällposten'', generally known simply as ''Sydsvenskan'' (, ''The South Swedish''), is a

daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports ...

published in

Scania Scania, also known by its native name of Skåne (, ), is the southernmost of the historical provinces (''landskap'') of Sweden. Located in the south tip of the geographical region of Götaland, the province is roughly conterminous with Skåne ...

in Sweden.

History and profile

''Sydsvenskan'' was founded in 1870. In 1871 the paper merged with ''Snällposten'' which was started in 1848. ''Sydsvenskan'' is headquartered in

Malmö Malmö (, ; da, Malmø ) is the largest city in the Swedish county (län) of Scania (Skåne). It is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region, with a municipal pop ...

and mostly distributed in southern Scania. Its coverage is characterized by local news from southwest Scania in addition to a full coverage of national, EU, and international news. The paper is owned by the

Bonnier Group Bonnier AB (), also the Bonnier Group, is a privately held Swedish media group of 175 companies operating in 15 countries. It is controlled by the Bonnier family. Background The company was founded in 1804 by Gerhard Bonnier in Copenhagen, Denma ...

which bought it in 1994. It was one of the Swedish publications which featured news materials provided by the Swedish Intelligence Agency during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. Until 1966, ''Sydsvenskan'' had close ties to the Rightist Party (now

Moderate Party The Moderate Party ( sv, Moderata samlingspartiet , ; M), commonly referred to as the Moderates ( ), is a liberal-conservative political party in Sweden. The party generally supports tax cuts, the free market, civil liberties and economic lib ...

). In the Swedish debate about the country's role in the EU and in relation to the Eurozone, the paper has emphasized the importance of a closer political, economical, and cultural affiliation to Europe. Its stated editorial position is "independent

liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

". The newspaper changed its format from broadsheet to compact format on 5 October 2004.

Introduction and then removal of paywall

''Sydsvenskan'' introduced a soft paywall in February 2013. Those who did not have a paper subscription could view a maximum of 20 free articles per month. A year after, this was changed to 5 articles per week. Subscription models were available from 28 Swedish kronor, with the cheapest one giving full access to the website. In August 2014, this was raised to 59 Swedish kronor (around US$7.10), as the former price was an introductory price. A year after the introduction of the paywall, 60,000 subscribers had created accounts on the website and 4,000 had purchased a digital subscription. In January 2016, ''Sydsvenskan'' removed the paywall, with the editor-in-chief Pia Rehnquist saying that having a paywall had led to a general belief that you had to pay to read the website. She also said that the digital part is going well but they thought it would better to reach more readers.

Acquisition of ''Helsingborgs Dagblad''

In the end of April 2014, ''Sydsvenskan'' acknowledged their intention to buy ''

Helsingborgs Dagblad ''Helsingborgs Dagblad'' (''HD'', lit. "Helsingborg's Daily Paper"), published in Helsingborg in Skåne is the largest (circ. 84.000) newspaper in Swedish outside the metropolitan districts of Malmö, Göteborg and Stockholm. History and pro ...

''. A deal was reached in the end of May and the Swedish Competition Authority approved it around two weeks after. A strong reason was reported to be that both newspapers had seen their ad revenue decrease heavily.

Circulation

In 1998 the circulation of ''Sydsvenskan'' was 125,000 copies on weekdays and 146,000 copies on Sundays. The paper had a circulation of 129,300 copies on weekdays in 2005. It was 94,800 copies in 2012. The circulation of the paper was 99,800 copies in 2013.

References

External links